Ordinarily I love Robbie Coltrane. He looked (and was) way too old and used up for this part. I think they chose a big name like his because the writing was so bad, and an actor of his caliber might make it watchable. But it didn't happen. Before the 3-parter was half over it was already obvious who the killer was. The red herrings were sickly pink and rotting by that time. I can see where maybe the book was okay. The basic idea was okay. But the execution of script, filming, timing, flashbacking was absolutely terrible. The whole middle episode could have been deleted and not lost a beat. They basically just retold the first episode in the second one, same scenes rehashed. Then the third episode crash-landed (you'll see what I mean) into a 5-second revelation of what happened. Following that, nonsensical stupidity and gratuitous death. But it was a relief to get it all over with and go to bed. Not even anything that might keep me from getting a good night's sleep.
Review of Murderland
